Searchable Lemmata: maille (AF), maille (ME), maela (L), maella (L), maillen (ME), máille (Ir), mael (W), maille (OScots), mailʒe (OScots), mail (MdE).
Alternate Forms: maelas, maeles, mailes, mailles, male, maylez, maylis, meile.
1a(n.)
Armour;
in general, a link in a chain (whether functional, decorative, or both); also, an individual metal ring, plate or similar used in the making of mail armour (see sense 2 below); sections of such links as used to produce armour. This word is etymologically identical with mascle (q.v.)(ante 1175 still in current use)
3. [592] ... After þe relikes þai sende, Þe corporas & þe messe gere: On þe halidom þai gun swere. ... [594] ... Of mailes was nou3t his hauberk; It was al of anoþer werk ... [596] ... Al his armour was blac as piche.
Heroic, Poetic, Romance.
[MED Guy(2) ((Auch) pp.592-596) circa 1300/1330]
4. [m1]... Item, ij mandeferres, j vauntebras e j rerebras pur jouste de pees ... [2r] ... Item, vij pauncez et j brace ... [2v] ... Item, v forsetz ... Item, ij forselletz ... [2r] ... Item, .xxx. petitz peces de maile a guyse de voiders
Accounts.
[AND PRO (E163/6/13 m.1-2r) 1398/1399]
Sex: Male Use: Military Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Entire Body.
1b(n.)
Armour;
a type of armour consisting of linked metal rings or a mesh of metal links (often called chain-mail in Modern English, though that term does not predate the nineteenth century). In some cases refers instead to 'scale' armour, consisting of attached metal discs, plates or scales (rather than rings). Also appears as a plural mass noun meaning 'mail armour'. There is some overlap with sense 1a above. Cf. coat of mail.(circa 1330 still in current use)
5. j mantill cum capicio de veridi, lyred ... Pro j clathsek, vocato standard, de corrio ... Pro uno bordour de mayle, jaggyd, cum laton pro gall ... Pro uno pare de qwysschewes de mayle
Wills.
[MED Will York in Sur. Soc. 45 (73) 1423]
8. Item je devise ... ma petite cote de maille le piece de plate ... apellé brestplate, le pance qe fuist a monseignur mon pere ... , mon houstell et mon chaperon de fere. ... je devise a T.B. mes brigandiers couvertez de rouge velvet chequeté noire et blank
[AND Reg Chich (ii 65) 1414/1443]
Sex: Male Use: Military Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Entire Body.
2(vb.)
Manufacture;
as a derived verb: to make mail armour; to reinforce with metal rings in the manner of mail. In the medieval period, found only as a past participle: for citations, see entry at mailed.(circa 1440 still in current use)
Sex: Male Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
Definite, Anglo-French/Old French maille, maile, maele 'spot, stain marking' and more specifically 'mesh or net' < Latin macula; the word is identical with mascle (see further discussion at that word), which carried this range of meanings; macula acquired the senses of 'mesh' and 'individual link or part of a mesh' before the tenth century and it is from these senses, with application to a mesh of metal rings, that the present meanings are derived. It has been suggested that the word is in fact derived from French maille 'hammer' (< Latin malleus) in the sense of 'hammering links together', but this has been refuted by almost all etymologists. The word was borrowed from French > Latin, Middle English, Scots, Irish and Welsh.
WF: Borrowed into the British Isles
Etym Cog:
References:
